


You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore

by 27dragons



Series: 27dragons' Tony Stark Bingo [26]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23161456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/27dragons/pseuds/27dragons
Summary: Sure, Tony felt short of breath whenever he saw Bucky, and his throat tightened whenever he saw Bucky and Steve together, but he was sure he had his little crush on Bucky under control. When he started coughing up flower petals, however, he realized that he did not have it under controleven a little bit.For the Tony Stark Bingo, card # 3033, square A1 - Cliche
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: 27dragons' Tony Stark Bingo [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1270892
Comments: 71
Kudos: 851
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore

Sure, Tony felt short of breath whenever he saw Bucky, and his throat tightened whenever he saw Bucky and Steve together, but he was sure he had his little crush on Bucky under control. When he started coughing up flower petals, however, he realized that he did not have it under control _even a little bit_.

Hanahaki? _Really?_ Christ, could he be even _more_ of a cliché of pathetic idiocy? He tried to keep it a secret, but it wasn’t long before Rhodey found out, because of course it wasn’t.

“Tones,” Rhodey said, sucking breath as he saw the trash can half-full of spit-covered petals. “Tones, it’s not _me_ , is it?”

Tony laughed. “Honeybear, if it was you, I’d have been in this mess for years already, don’t you think? Even if you are one fine-looking man in that uniform.”

“Always gotta make it weird,” Rhodey complained half-heartedly, but he peered into the trash can again. There were half a dozen colors of petals in there, red and pink and blue and yellow, a whole rainbow of feelings. “Who is it?” he asked thoughtfully. “I could feel ‘em out, see if maybe--”

“No,” Tony said. “No, it’s not going to happen. Just. Just let it go, man.”

Rhodey sighed and nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Okay. But you need a doctor, Tones.”

Tony sighed. It felt like a surrender, like giving up something precious. But he didn’t want to die, either. “Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll go see Helen.”

Helen would keep it under wraps. She was good like that.

* * *

“The best cure,” Helen told him, “is to _talk_ to the object of your desire.”

Tony snorted. “He’s not going to suddenly fall in love with me because I’m coughing up flowers.”

“Perhaps not,” Helen said. “But you may discover that you don’t love him as much as you think you do, and the infestation will wither of its own accord.”

Tony shook his head. No way was that happening. He already knew that.

“Think about it,” Helen urged him. “In the meantime... Yes, there are some drugs that can keep things under control. This isn’t the dark ages, when hanahaki was invariably fatal. Or even last century, when you had to have your feelings excised entirely.” She wrote him a prescription and put it carefully on the exam table next to him. “We can keep it under control for as long as it’s necessary. But you really should talk to him.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” Tony said, already knowing that he wouldn’t.

* * *

Tony pretended to watch the movie, keeping one eye on the Barnes-Rogers duo on the couch. They were so easy with each other. Laughing, pushing and shoving, teasing. Leaning into each other’s spaces, snuggling down against each other’s sides.

Tony’s chest ached and his throat closed for a moment and he coughed, a whole handful of white petals, lightly tinged with green.

He got up quickly, before anyone could see, and went into the kitchen to toss the petals down the garbage disposal. He splashed his face with water and leaned his elbows on the counter to put his face in his hands. Fuck. He was going to have to ask Helen for a bigger dose of the suppressant. _Such_ a fucking cliché.

“Hey, doll,” Bucky said, making Tony spin around in startled reflex. “Whoa, hey, ddn’t mean to scare ya. Just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“Fine,” Tony said quickly, waving a hand. “Just needed a minute to work out a thing that’s been bothering me all day. I’m right on the verge of cracking it.”

“Yeah?” Bucky grinned at him. “You want to tell me about it? Sometimes helps to talk it through, you know?” He dropped into one of the kitchen chairs and waved at another easily.

Tony’s throat tightened again but he managed to suppress the cough, swallow the petals back down. “Uh, yeah, sure,” he said, because he’d never been able to resist the opportunity to have Bucky’s attention, even when it was just making his condition worse. He took the offered chair and started telling Bucky about one of the projects he was working on in the lab. It was oddly helpful, actually, having someone to bounce ideas off of, even if Bucky was mostly just nodding and humming thoughtfully.

In fact, it helped so much that Tony did, actually, have a little bit of a breakthrough about the issue, a whole new structure for something he’d been trying to figure out how to stabilize.

He jumped out of his chair with a little cheer, and when he grinned at Bucky, Bucky smiled back at him. And then... Bucky _coughed_.

His hands flew up to cover his mouth, but not before a few blushing pink petals escaped to flutter to the floor.

“Oh my god,” Tony said softly.

Bucky grimaced and cursed, and got up to dump the handful of petals into the trash. Leaned over and coughed up another handful, pink and purple and white. “Fuck,” he groaned.

“Bucky, I--”

“No, doll, don’t,” Bucky said. “It’s my problem, it ain’t yours. I... I’m content enough.”

Tony frowned. “I don’t understand.” 

Bucky groaned and dropped back into his chair to scrub his hands over his face. “”I mean, you don’t gotta feel obligated to pretend or nothin’ for me. I’ve gotta... There’s treatments now, right? I just gotta duck down to medical, see if we can put something together that’ll affect me despite the whole metabolism thi--”

“You’re-- That’s for _me?_ ” Tony stared at him, uncomprehending. “But. What about Steve?”

“What about Steve?” Bucky’s eyes widened, and then he laughed. “Did you think Steve ‘n’ me were knockin’ boots? Oh my god, that’s rich. God, no, doll, I love ‘im, but h but he’s my brother, not my lover. He’s like... my Rhodes.”

“Oh,” Tony said, nodding. He and Rhodey had been mistaken for lovers any number of times. That made sense, even if he couldn’t quite wrap his head all the way around the rest of the implications. “Yeah, okay.”

“Yeah,” Bucky said, still shaking his head with amusement. “Steve is _definitely_ not my Pepper.”

“Your-- Pepper and I aren’t dating,” Tony said. “We broke up like three years ago.”

“You what?” Bucky stared at him.

Tony nodded. “I’ll always love her,” he said, “but she’s not the one I’m _in_ love with.”

He took a breath, and it suddenly felt fuller than he’d been able to breathe for weeks. _Months_.

“Tony, are you sayin’--”

“I’m saying I’m already _on_ hanahaki-suppressant drugs because...” He shook his head, then stepped into Bucky’s space, insinuating himself between Bucky’s knees, and bent down to press his lips to Bucky’s.

Bucky tasted of roses and lavender and other flowers not so easily identified.

A veritable rainbow of feelings.

Bucky gasped and pulled in a breath, a deep one, and then another. “Oh god,” he said softly. “Tony...”

Tony hummed and straddled Bucky’s lap, threading his fingers into Bucky’s hair and leaning back a little, just enough to force Bucky to put his hands on Tony’s hips to brace him.

“I think we should continue this conversation somewhere else,” Tony said. “Like, say, over dinner?”

“Yeah,” Bucky said, a smile slowly spreading over his mouth. “But jus’ between you an’ me, doll? There’s no need to bring me any flowers.”


End file.
